One of the crucial steps of a health technology assessment (HTA) is conducting a thorough literature review.

OBJECTIVES:

To use reproducible methods in examining the existing literature on the health benefits, non-health benefits and, patient satisfaction for those seeking specialist care through telemedicine compared to the routine care pathway.

To fast track and semi automate the process of literature reviews for HTAs

METHODS:

The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021282042). Four databases were explored to conduct a naïve search using tailored keywords and MeSH terms identified within each PICO component. The naïve search results (*.bib, *.txt) were then imported into R (version 4.1) for merging, identification and review of duplicates using systhesisr package. A keyword co-occurrence network was created and Boolean search strings were generated. This was done using the litsearchr package. Functions from the metagear package were used distribute the efforts among three independent reviewers and screen the abstracts using a graphical user interface. Full papers of the selected abstracts were downloaded using the metagear::PDFs_collect() function. Subsequently, zoteror package was used to skim read the full text and organise the reference database.

RESULTS: Out of 5032 articles, total of 19 articles were included in the review. The majority of the articles explored the benefits of telemedicine in secondary care through economic analyses or disease outcomes but only a few studies explored the use of telemedicine for secondary care in LMICs, and the majority were from HICs.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the utility of reproducible methods in conducting a literature review which is an essential step in conducting an HTA. This has the potential in reducing the time and manual effort required for conducting a traditional systematic review. The results show the effectiveness of specialist or secondary care through telemedicine services, this potential could be explored to bridge the healthcare equity gaps further.